The Sound of Ideas

"All Star" by Smash Mouth

So while I'm a huge memory kick, let's go for the trifecta. Every Y2K kid probably knows this song. And it was my song. Cranked it up every time when it came on the radio. Pretty much lost it when it was in the Digimon movie. I still know every friggin' word.

So much stuff kept me moving. Music, games, movies... and it all was centered in the creativity I was experimenting with, that I was just starting to find and understand.

This song is like a moment in a bottle. The beginning of it all, when I started to really walk towards this weird objective that I still chase. I had to try it, see what I could do.

"I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)" by John Rzeznik

Any time I remember Titan A.E., I remember Treasure Planet. The want for adventure, the dreaming... It's what kept me going. Kept me living.

"I won't listen anyway. You don't know me, and I'll never be what you want me to be."

I had a defiance as a kid. A stubbornness. I knew what I wanted, and if I had to sneak or lie, I would never lose the one thing I considered most important to me: My ability to create.

"They can't break me as long as I know who I am."

That was my core. Creativity was what I grew up on, what I thrived on. And as long as I remembered that, I had everything I needed.

This song was the purest distillation of everything I was and, as I listen again for the first time in years... everything I still am. But I forgot.

"And how can they say I've never changed, they're the ones that stay the same. I'm the one now..."

I've been looking for my reason, for my spark. It's always been there, but I've been afraid of it. This dreaming kid with his head in the stars, that person I thought I lost - that person I've been looking for - suddenly just came back up and answered me...

"Cosmic Castaway" by Electrasy

I was reminded of Titan A.E. earlier and, instantly, was reminded of this song. This summed up so much of my feelings back when I first watched Titan A.E. and they're somehow even more true now.

I grew up with a craving for adventure, for an infinite world, for exploration. And it's still there, to this day. It's what drives me to create. To borrow a familiar source, to explore strange new worlds... to boldly go where no one has gone before. Infinite canvases, whether an open ocean or endless space, have always grabbed me.

And I've always been that person, alone in his head exploring all these places no one else knows and at times totally lost in the real world, not really belonging, as if stranded. Looking to the stars because they're where I belonged. Where I came from.

"Fader" by The Temper Trap

Another song with a sound that I could listen to for hours (and have). There's a few ways to interpret the song, but to me it's about moving on from mistakes and on to new things, not getting trapped by regrets.

It's another song I get a subtle optimism out of and it's the song I hear from characters that always pick themselves up and keep going, continuing their journey.

"Here To Show The World" by Downstait

I like professional wrestling. It's build around theatrics, making things feel larger than life, and being one of the craziest things on television. it also has themes songs.

Remember those?

Well, as it always goes, some of the best theme songs go to the villains, or as they call 'em in wrasslin', heels. This theme belongs to The Show-Off, Dolph Ziggler. (Yeah, wrestling names are a bit weird.)

I play this song on repeat when I need a serious dose of "let's get this done" and it's one of several wrestling themes with a similar idea. It's the cocky, ego-driven, anything-you-can-do-I-can-do better guys that get the best themes because they're good and they know it.

But more importantly, they're not afraid to show it and back it up.

"Lights" by Ellie Goulding

On a bit of an indie pop kick, I had to go back and play this song again. This is one of those songs that I can play on repeat and enjoy something every time. The vocals, the unique sound it brings, and the little things all over the song as it builds.

"Rooftop Run" by Tomoya Ohtani, from Sonic Unleashed

Whenever I want to just get high on music, feel a nice rush to wake me up and get me going, and/or just listen to my favorite form of happiness in audio form, I pull this up.

I am a major fan of the music in the Sonic series. The 3D era has has had a lot of issues and not everyone likes the new music compared to the old, but just for what they are, the 3D era soundtracks are usually top notch and one of the things that keep me playing for hours on end.

And this track happens to belong to one of the first levels in the longest time to get the gameplay and feel behind Sonic right. Just watching this level played, and hearing this, makes me want to tear up. There's something I just love about it.

"Little Secrets" by Passion Pit

New layout! I blasted a few songs on a loop while working on it and this was one of them.

This is a weird song that I can't help but like. I keep bouncing in my chair when I listen to it and want to just belt out the lyrics to it.

"Chrono Trigger" by Yasunori Mitsuda, arragenment by Guido

I've already posted this theme once, but I'll post it again because it's awesome and this version is my favorite thing right now. An acid jazz arrangement from the album "Brink of Time", the main theme of one of the most legendary RPGs ever made will always live on for me as one of those themes that always brings back a flood of memories.

I recently unearthed this from my hard drive, having completely forgotten it, and was surprised. I thought it was going to be just a simple orchestral arrangement. Nope. I instead find this gem. I want to just rant on about it, but I can't really find words. This is simply just two of my favorite things at once.

"Tunnel Scene" by Kozumi Tokata from X-Returns/X-Scape

Anyone who has logged as many hours as I have in Super Smash Bros. Brawl should recognize this track, but probably won't know this version. One of the tracks for the Lylat Cruise stage, "Tunnel Scene" is one of the obscure oddities put into the game for two reasons: Being a damn good song and being a piece of Nintendo history.

X was a Gameboy game that never saw release in the States, but was part of a lineage of shooters that would eventually reach the entire world. The first game to even use 3D on the Gameboy and taking cues from previous title Starglider, X was developed by Argonaut Games and quickly got Nintendo's attention.

Asked to develop for the SNES, Argonaut Games created the Super FX chip for Super Nintendo cartridges. This chip would first be used in a game developed by Nintendo and Argonaut Games to show the power of the chip.

That game was Starfox. And that was only the beginning.

And so, Super Smash Bros. nods at this legacy of polygonal shooters with the inclusion of "Tunnel Scene" on a Starfox stage, but the legacy doesn't end there.

"Rise Above 1" by Reeve Carney feat. Bono & The Edge from Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

This has been in my head a lot lately. It's another song I keep in mind when I try to stay centered on a specific tone; Ominous, but hopeful.

"Dark Matrix" by Bumblefoot for Carlin Publishing

I'm going by the information in the video description as the exact credits are not entirely clear, but this is a "production theme" used by WWE first (and more notably) as part of the viral marketing of Chris Jericho's return to the company back in 2007.

I always liked this one specifically as it always stuck out as very different from the usual sounds used by WWE - which is usually your typical variants of rock - and really fit the cryptic nature of the promos, not to mention the Matrix motif.

It stills pops into my head every now and then. Gets my brain moving.